Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) recently released its latest round of Economic Outlook Survey. As per the survey, the annual median GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 is estimated at 5.0%.
The survey also revealed that the GDP growth is likely to improve to 5.5% in 2020-21. The median growth forecast for Agriculture and allied activities and the industry are predicted at 2.6% and 3.5% respectively for 2019-20. The services sector is expected to grow at 7.2% during the current year. A median forecast of 4.7% for GDP growth has been estimated for the third quarter of 2019-20.

Notes:
Indian ace Basketball player and Captain, P Mathew Satya Babu recently passed away at 79 years in Chennai. He had represented India in the three Asian Basketball Championships conducted in Seoul, Bangkok and Manila from 1967 to 1970. He also served as the captain of the Indian team during the 6th Bangkok Asian Games.
Mathew Satya Babu was a qualified basketball coach and a referee. He had coached the state basketball team of Tamil Nadu and the men and women teams of Indian Railways.

Notes:
Christine Sinclair is a famous footballer of Canada and the captain of Canada National Team. She recently created a record of becoming the world’s all-time international leading goal scorer.
She achieved this feat after her 185th career goal during the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. She has broken the world record of American Footballer Abby Wambach who had scored 184 goals. This record includes both male and female category. Ali Daei of Iran tops the men’s international scoring list with 109 goals.

Notes:
The All-Party Parliament Group on Traditional Medicines recently organized a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting aimed at legalising Ayurveda in Europe and integrating it with their other healthcare systems.
During the meeting, Indian Ayurveda doctor, Dr.Pratap Chauhan was conferred with the ‘Ayurveda Ratan’ award. Several representatives and delegated attended the meeting including the Indian Ambassador to European Union, Gaitri Kumar. Ayurveda Day was celebrated at the European Parliament on November 21, 2018 for the first time.

Notes:
In the Union Budget 2020-21, the Government has set its disinvestment target at ₹ 1.2 Lakh Crores for the fiscal year 2020-21. The government also expects ₹90,000 crore revenue from disinvestment of government stake in public sector banks and financial institutions, including the LIC and IDBI bank. This is in addition to the 1.2 Lakh Crore target and hence a total of ₹ 2.1 Lakh Crores worth disinvestment is scheduled.
This year, the government has missed the disinvestment target of ₹1.05 lakh crore. So far, ₹18,000 crore has been generated via disinvestment. The revised estimates set ₹65,000 crore as disinvestment target for this fiscal.

Notes:
The biennial Defence exhibition of India, ‘DefExpo’ was recently inaugurated at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also attended the inaugural programme.
A live demonstration of naval systems, aerial systems and land systems was performed during the ceremony. The main theme of the DefExpo 2020 is ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’ and the focus will be on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’. The five-day-exhibition is to be attended by delegates and military manufacturers from more than 70 countries. The fifth India-Russia Military Industry Conference is also to be held on the side-lines of the event.

Notes:
Since 2020, Bhutan levies a ‘sustainable development fee’ of 1,200 ngultrums (Rs 1,200.17) per day on tourists from India, Bangladesh and the Maldives.

Notes:
Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), the public transporter of Delhi, has been conferred with the Road Safety Award 2018-19 in the urban category for the lowest rate of accidents.
The Director of DTC received the award from the Union Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari. The award was presented during the 3rd Edition of International Conference and Exhibition on Public Transport Innovation (ICEPTI) 2020, which was organised at New Delhi. The award carries a trophy and a cheque of Rs. 1 Lakh.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a dispute resolution scheme for direct taxes in the recent Union Budget 2020-21.
Under the proposed scheme, the taxpayers whose tax demands are locked in any dispute in any of the forums can pay their due taxes by March 31, 2020. By paying it before the deadline, the taxpayer can get complete waiver of interest and penalty. With an additional 10 per cent, he can pay up to June 30. The Finance Minister recently introduced the ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ bill in the parliament. Last year, a scheme for dispute resolution for indirect taxes called ‘Sabka Vishwas’ was launched.

Notes:
Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has recently organised its first awareness programme in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
APEDA, which comes under the aegis of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, organised the programme in association with the Directorate of Industries of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, in the capital city of the islands, Port Blair. The campaign was aimed at examining methods to promote exports of agri products and implementation of the Agri Export Policy in the Islands. The draft state Agri Export action plan, developed by APEDA was also finalized.